Reporting from outside the G20 Summit, where ordinary people from all over the world have come to tell the G20 about the issues they care about. The largest group is made up of people who have come from the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, protesting against genocide and contraventions of human rights in their country - which they believed are being perpretrated by their current prime minister who is attending the G20. I am worried however by the lack of space provided for organised forms of civic expression. The transport has been closed down, the space provided is almost 1 mile from the Summit and it is difficult for people to get here. I worry that protesting is becoming ‘socially unnacceptable’ based on on the pretext of security. We need more people to organise! This is a time when 18 Men and 2 Women will make decisions affecting over 6 billion people accross the world, many of which are not represented in the summit. The voices of people in this global crises must be heard, not quashed, the space for assembly and expression should be a free space not a small encaged zone miles from those that must hear these voices!!!
